The Londonderry sifter. (South Londonderry, Vt.) 1883-19??, 1887-01-20


ing at the hands of God, perhaps you tell me;
[ you have no resour "es, Who clothed you'
] Who fed roul Who sheltered youi Ger
| trinity you did not steal these resources.
| Then God gave them to YOU. Be thankful
have no sympathy with the cant and hy-
| pocrisy of people who in pulpit AMI pew
| talk against money rs though it hal no
| value. It is refinement, it is education, it is
| thousand blessed surroundings, it is hands.
it is feet it is sails to great enterprises, it is
| the table spresl to feed the hunger OF your
| children, it IS the fire to keen your family
warm, it is the building Of churches. the en-
uowing OF colleges, the taking of Bibles across
the sea, under God it is the evangelizltion of
natlons-money put to right uses Tle more
man gets the better, if it comes honestly
and goes usefully What would this world
nave been without the William z. Dodges,
ana the George Peabodys and the James
Lonoxes, and men Of that typel Who sent
5000 to earthquake stricken Charlestonl
New York Chamber Of Commerce When
breadstufrs were to be sent across the sea to
| Ireland starving Ireland, we took mp co!lec
| tions In all our churches, but the great mass
| or the money sent, the most of the bread
stuffs were sent out by men of means, While
| we acknowledge the uses, the Christian uses,
| of money and have no sympathy with the
| insincerity or the cant that is always talked
| against rich men, as though they were not
as good members of society as Others, as
| though they were to be suspected-the COM
| plant chiefly made by men who have not
| been successful against men who have been
| successful-while we have no sympathy with
that thing, tell you plainly man is most
unwise who measures this life by monetary
achievements, and he will find out this mis-
take when the glttering stuff slips out of his
hands as he gees out of the world without a
| dollar of money or a certificate of stock. He
might better have been the Christian porter
that opened his gate, or the CnriStan work
man who heavei the coal into his cellar.
'Thev that trust in their wealth aud boast
themselves in The multitude of their Riches
none of them can by any means redeem his
brother nor give to God a ransom for him
| that he should not see corruption. The wise
men die, likewise the fool and the british
person perish and leave their wealth to
| others
! "Substantial comfort will not grow
In natures barren soil;
All we con bcast-t II Christ we know,
Is vanity and toiln
Now, am glad to say-turning brighter
| leaf in my discourss-I am glad to say that
| there are great many people who are wiser
| than those of whom l have spoken. and they
are measuring their life by moral and spir-
| itual development. 1t is not egotism for a
man to say II am better than I used to
| Dc. my thOu-ubs al o IIuItI, L HNe ny Iue III
| spiration of higher motives: l have by the
grace of God put down great mauy Of my
svil habits; am better man now entering
! 1887 than when l entered 1877" 1t is
| no egot:sm for a soldier to say: II
! understand more military tactics than when
| first took up a muslSet and learned to pre-
sent arms and when was the pest of the drill
| o.icer." 1t is no ogotism for sailor to say:
| VI know more of voyaging on the sea and
more of ratlines than did when l first
| learned to clew down the mizzen topsail. :"
| 1t is no bad thing, no mean thing, no self
| righteous thing for a Christian man to say:
| 81 know more about the battles of the Lord
| or l can sail better the voyage of this life
than when first entered Christ's service. :"
Why there are people here to-day who are
| mighty for God who once were very weak in
the Christian life, but they have measured
| lances with many foe aud unhorsad it.
| They have grown swarthy hammering at the
anvil Of calamity. They have come upon n
different platform from the one on which
they stood years and years ago They measure
| their life on earth by golden gated Sab
baths and Pentecostal prayer meetings and
| communion seasons and baptismal fonts and
| halleu jahs in the temDle Oh how changed
| is their life, They have stood on Mount
| Sinai and heard it thunder. They have stood
| on Mount Fisgah and looked over into the
Promised Land They have written over
their life's troubles 'sLife is but moment :"
| They are only waiting for the gates to open
and the shackles to fall and the glory to
begin.
| Then l notice there are great many peo-
| ple-I wish there were more of thenl--who
are measuring their life by the amount of
| good they can do. John Bradford said he
considered the day wasted in which he did
not by pen or tongue accomplish some good.
| cannot tell how much man might ac-
complish if he devoted al his life to right
| purposes. l cannot tell. l have not
| the mathematical capacity, to make
| the calculation, of how many
tears he could wipe away; of how many
burdens he could lift; of how much ignor-
ance he could illumine of how many outcasts
he could bring back to God. There are men
who have gone their whole life in the right
directj On. All their faith, all their natural
| force. all their mental acumen, all their
| physical energy, all their enthusiasm of soul
for God, and they climbed mountains, and
they crossed seas and they trudged
deserts and they dropped into martyr graves
| waiting for tie resurrection of tho just. They
measured their lives by the chains they had
broken, by the sorrow they had alieviated,
by the garments with which they clothed
nakedness, by the mics they iourneyei
to relieve suffering of any kind and
Of all kinds. That is the way
they measured life. How ~ long = have they
Sutter9 How old was Richard BaXter7 How
old was Philip Dodridge? Why, in practical
| usefulness they have lived thousands Of years
| Add zen thousand times ten thousand more
| years and you cannot express the time they
| lived. Forever. Forever. Forever. Add
| all the immortalities, all the thousands OF
souls they brought to God, add up all the
immortalities. Heaven to Heaven. throne
to thrcne. glory to glory. and mako the esti
mate. While that is so, there are persons ir
this house who have not yet begun life
We have got to be babes in Christ befor.
we begin the Christian life. You say yor
are 80, or you are 60, or you are 70, or 20,
are 50. My brother, if you are not Chris
| tian, you have not begun to live
I do not know what your opportunitie
are; do not know what your manners are
attractive or repulsive; do not know wha
your education, elaborate or nothing at all
but know there is field for you to work
there is a soul for you to save, there is al
especial mission for you to execute. l
you have wealth, give it to Christ
where you p,n have and sl01gsnss, WSssros use uss
theirs, on the side of Christ If you have
learning put it int, the poor box of the
worlds suffering. But if you have neither
wealth, nor eloquence, nor learning, yoC
have smile with which to encourage the
disheartened, and you have q frown with
WHICH you ldti uldSt III JuStlCe, anu you nave !
voice with which you can call sinners hont
to God. "Oh," says some one ''that.
very sanctimonious view of life. Ny
brother, it is not; it is the only bright view
of lie, aid it is the only bright view
of death. do not know how man car
exist in moment like this--one year gone
the other come. amid all the solemn sug
gestions that come to every thoughtful mar
and woman-I do not know how one car
exist without trying to make some prepara
ton for the great future and trying tt
offer some repentance for the past
You compare the death scene of those wht
have measured life by a worldly STANDARD
and the death scene of those who have meas
ured life by Christian standard. Quinn
the dying actor, said: II hope this tragit
scene will soon end hope to preserve my
dignity to the last" Malherbet cried out tt
the confessor: ''Hold your tongue
your miserable style puts me ou
of concet of heaven" LORD Ches
terfield, when he ought to have beer
praying for his soul, bothered himself abou
the proprieties of the sick room, saying
Give Dayroles chair" Godfrey Kneltel
died while making a diagram for his owl
monument Oh, compare such silly an[
horrible getting out of life with the departur,
OF Edward Payson, who said: "The breeze
n ~ flNn